The next few days in Doha were not as busy for us. After sleeping in until noon due to jetlag, the four of us met with Heather and walked to the Hamad Heart Hospital with Tay to send her off on her first day. All three of the hospitals we are placed at are next to each other and across the street from us. Once we said our goodbyes we visited the cafeteria where we found everything was so inexpensive! A bottle of water costs $0.35 Canadian. Meaghan discovered how nice the Qatari people are when a nice lady bought her water in the cafeteria - and offered to buy the rest of us one as well. Once Tay was settled the three of us went to a mall close to our apartment and enjoyed some delicious coffee and McDonalds. We spent the afternoon shopping for shoes and clothes. We were surprised to find that almost all clothing stores are very western and European here. Also, they people here seem to have an odd sense of fashion underneath all those abayas. After spending time at the mall we went for a short walk to explore the area. Meaghan stubbed her toe, ripped her toenail, and bled all over the city, so we had to take a cab back to the apartment. Sharon used Asian medicine to heal Meaghan's toe and we hung out for the rest of the night, attempting to get sleep for clinical (which didn't really work).

The next day, we prepared for our first day of clinical. We weren't feeling too hot today...jet lag hit us hard. We had some unpleasant side effects and so we spent the whole day resting and Lisa missed clinical. Meaghan went to clinical for the evening while the rest of us stayed in for supper.

Monday was much better. Meaghan, Lisa, and Sharon went to clinical. Lisa learned that things here are not always on time, and so she had to wait at the apartment for three hours in the morning while her preceptor was busy doing other things. Although it was worth the wait!

The following are some descriptions of our clinical areas:

Emergency at Hamad hospital is divided into several sections: Male urgent care, male see and treat, female urgent care, female see and treat, trauma bays 1 and 2 with intensive care patients waiting for ICU admission, male and female short stay (72 hour) units, trauma, and resuscitation bays. The ER sees 1500 patients per day from every area of the country, and is the only free ER in the country. Most trauma cases are a result of motor vehicle accidents and construction falls.

Labor and Delivery is a 19-bed unit located in the central section of the Women's hospital. The only access to the unit is through a back hallway where patient's families and friends can only visit for short periods and one at a time and where the fathers are only allowed to visit for 5-10 minutes (this only started being allowed a month ago). It is a fairly busy unit, usually all beds are full with an all-female staff. The nurses are all friendly and want to share their knowledge and culture as well as learn about Canadian nursing and culture.

General med is divided into two units - males and females. The male general med unit sees wide variety of health conditions, including respiratory related issues, stroke, muscular dystrophy, etc. Although it is a male unit, there are only three male nurses working on the unit. Patients come from many parts of the world, creating a unique environment of diversity in culture.

Taylor was very jet lagged on her first shift so we will find out more details about her placement at the heart hospital ER later on...

We have noticed several differences in the nursing here compared to Canada, mainly in that the nurses here do not question the doctors or think about what they are doing to the patient. We have also noticed that patients have less autonomy here and do not question the medical team. Family care nursing is not particularly considered here, and security is at every doorway.

A surprising addition to the Hamad ER is that there is a room for domestic violence that is assigned for immediate security of victims of sexual assault and domestic violence. This was something that we thought was very progressive!

During the afternoon, Meaghan went to clinical while Lisa and Taylor joined our faculty advisor for a walk along the corniche to a nice cafe along the shore. It was very cold so we didn't stay long, but it was nice to get out for a long walk and enjoy the city.

On Tuesday, we went to the University of Calgary Qatar campus and worked with first year students as they practiced learning how to interview the complex client. It was fun to see other students our age. After this, we went to Villagio, a mall that is similar to West Edmonton with only one floor, except with very expensive stores. There is a gondola that runs through the entire mall, and the ceiling is painted like a sky. There are pigeons inside as well! (Ahhh!) There is also a skating rink that often has minor hockey tournaments hosting teams from all over the world. The stores in this mall range from Mango and Zara to Tiffany's, Burberry, and Dior (to name a few). We found a shirt worth about $375 Canadian that was embedded with Swarovski crystals. The mall has a smaller version of galaxy land in it as well as a theater.

After the mall, we went to the Souq Waqif and had a short seminar with our instructor about cultural differences in care while eating some Moroccan food and camel (poor Sally!). Lisa drank a litre and a half of water so Heather and her rushed back to the apartment while everyone else stayed to enjoy the souq and make friends with some vendors. Tay bought a purse made of camel (poor Sally!).

On Wednesday, Taylor and Sharon joined Lisa at Hamad ER for a code blue class, reviewing code blue and CPR procedures. It was slightly different from our Canadian ways in that there is no trauma or code team to call and the nurses are expected to take full charge and run the code rather than doctors. Charting is not emphasized as much as it is in Canada. We also got to learn how to use the paddles and shock a training manikin. After the code blue, the three of us shadowed trauma nurses and saw everything from pedestrian accidents to camel incidents.

Wednesday night we went to a Turkish restaurant that we didn't really like. We also found a grocery store close to our apartment. We also learned some creative pick-up lines from the men on the street.

On Thursday, Heather signed us up for Arabic classes and a tour of the cultural centre. While it was interesting to learn more about Islamic culture, we felt they were pushing this religion on us perhaps a little too much. We learned a few Arabic phrases and a brief outline of how to read Arabic. They really wanted us to take more lessons, but they did not understand we are only here for one month. We enjoyed Arabic tea and coffee and Mango juice and then went to the corniche for the afternoon for a nice walk. We made a quick stop at the Islamic Art Museum...an amazing building designed by the same architext that built the Louvre. After that we went to the horse races for a few hours that evening and then went out for delicious Indian food.

On Friday, we spent the day at the Pearl, a man-made island in North West Doha. This place is so rich!! Most of the stores were close because it was Friday, however we still managed to find some good food and we got some good pictures. The boats (SHIPS!) in the harbour where massive! You know you have too much money when you hire someone to polish your boat daily. Some marinas were private while others where public and water taxis were available to travel across the island. We enjoyed some chocolate at the chocolate bar as well as frozen yogurt at Foshy Berry. Lisa was quite satisfied with her chocolate chocolate cupcake. After drooling over some fancy cars, we took a cab back to the Souq Waqif where we visited the gold souq and ate some Egyptian food. We also visited our vendors that we met previously and made some new vendor friends for next time.

On Saturday, we attempted to drive out to the middle of the country and see camel races. Though we saw them running and got a good laugh out of it, we missed the races for today. We spent the day shopping and exploring at Villagio instead. Tay enjoyed some McDonaldsJ. In the evening we attended a welcome party for all the new residents in our building. We had some interesting encounters with old professors and got to talk to some Canadians for a change. After a busy week, we are now looking forward to the next 6 days of clinical!